Walker Colliery Explosion – Walker – 1862

WALKER. Walker, Northumberland. 4th. November 1862.

The colliery was one of the oldest in the district and according to some of the old men had been sunk one hundred and two years before when a commemorative medal had been struck. The colliery was worked by Messrs. N.G. Lambert and Co. employed Mr. T.W. Jobling as the principle viewing manager and Mr. Cole as the resident viewer.

The coal was used for the production of gas and manufacturing but until abut fourteen months before the incident, had not been worked but undergone considerable repair work. The high main or Henry pit as it was known had been worked out about ten years previously and the miners employed in the Jane Pit in the low main. The workings ran from north to south and the downcast shaft was known as the Ann Pit in the north and was situated near the Catholic Church at Walker and the upcast, the Jane Pit, was close to the Walker Iron Works. The distance from one shaft to the other was about four hundred yards.

The Walker colliery was one of the few in the district into which water had not burst. The ventilation was provided by two furnaces in the centre of the colliery and the pit had a good reputation for safety among the colliers. Davy lamps were used and no naked lights were permitted. The pit employed about 120 hewers and those who worked on the haulage and at the surface. There was an explosion of gas that claimed the lives of sixteen men.

Just previous to the explosion a “trouble” had been encountered. This was the local term for a mass of stone within the coal seam and the usual practice was to blast the stone sway to reach the coal on the other side. All the men employed on the first shift came up at four o’clock on Friday afternoon and on any other day would have gone to work on the following morning but the Saturday happened to be the fortnightly payday and, as was the practice, the pit was not working on that Saturday. On these occasions, men are known as “off-hands”, were sent down to do necessary repair work and at two o’clock on Saturday morning, several hewers went down to fill tubs. These hewers proceed to the northwest part of the pit to hew coal.

The “off-hands” were employed in different parts of the pit repairing stonework, tramways, and any other work that was required. It was thought there were about thirty people in the pit on the day of the disaster and the only other living creatures in the pit were nine horses and twenty-one ponies which would have been in the stables about forty yards west of the downcast shaft.

Between five and six o’clock, the men engaged in the repair work heard a rushing and mighty wind and instantly were thrown down. At the same time two banksmen at the mouth of the pit, Robson, and Richardson, heard a sound which they said was like the muffled report of a boiler explosion. This was immediately followed by a strong current up the shaft which brought with it, straw, rubbish, and particles of coal. Immediately afterwards, the air took up its normal course.

Anthony Brown and some other men were working at the bottom of the shaft of Jane Pit were able to get in the cage and were drawn to the pit bank. They told Cooper, the engineman that there had been an explosion, and word was sent to Mr. Cole and the alarm spread around the district.

Mr. Cole along with Brown and several men who had come up went down the pit. The men repairers who were some distance from the seat of the explosion were not dead but some of them were unconscious. They were brought put as quickly as possible and attended to by Dr. Aitchenson of Wallsend. The men down the pit discovered that the stables were on fire and some coal also. The fires were soon brought under control with buckets of water. Unfortunately, all the horses and ponies were dead. Further explorations through a noxious atmosphere revealed two bodies and sent to the surface.

Twelve men were rescued and they were:

• James Giles, rolleyway driver.
• John Wilson, deputy.
• William Jobling, wasteman.
• John Shields, backoverman.
• Thomas Holt, onsetter.
• Robert Barnes, deputy.
• Anthony Barnes, master wasteman.
• William Joicey, rolleyway man.
• Edward Joicey, deputy.
• Henry Holt, furnaceman.
• George Mitford, stonemason.
• Thomas Watson, a boy, who was a driver.

Those who died were:

• Thomas Miller, hewer who was single but supported his mother.
• John Moore, a married hewer.
• Thomas Kenny, hewer married with three children.
• John Ellerton, hewer, single but supported his mother
• Joseph Atkinson, single.
• Thomas Atkinson, brother to Joseph.
• Joseph Foster, hewer, married with three adult children
• John Holt, rolleywayman, married with a daughter
• William Barnes, deputy, married with three children
• James Haswell, deputy, married with three children
• George Watson, wasteman, a widower with one child
• Martin Fatkin, married with two adult children
• George Barnes, hewer, brother to Willliam and married with two girls and two boys
• John Mitcheson, hewer, married with two children.
• George Mitford, door boy.
• William Burrell, putter.

The widows were not provided for as the men at the Walker Colliery were not in a Permanent Relief Fund.

The inquest was held by the Coroner, Mr. S. Reed on the 28th of November. Around the Coroner’s chair were several colliery viewers including Thomas E. Forster, G.B. Forster and W. Armstrong who were convened by Mr. Jobling the viewer of the Walker Colliery. Mathias Dunn, the Inspector of Mines had no legal adviser present and not one viewer came forward to assist him. There were very few workmen present and only two or three gave evidence to the court. it was believed that their employers would not like them to give their evidence to the court.

The first witness, Anthony Barnes, who was the wastemaster at the colliery, said he had never seen gas in the mine. “It was a mystery to me where the gas came from,”  he said and yet the mine had more than 10,000 square yards of excavations of five and a half feet coal that had been completely exhausted and the goaf was unventilated. He also knew that the two innermost bords which connected with the goaf were fouled and unventilated and yet there was blasting going on there. He had gone through the waste just before the explosion and found nothing to worry him but there were men blasting stone to enlarge the air course. He told the court that the furnace was damped before the explosion from 4 p.m. on Friday to 6 a.m. on Saturday.

John Shield, the back overman, had found small amounts of gas the day the pit fired. He did not know where the gas came from and could not identify the seat of the explosion. He said that even though the furnaces were slackened there was enough air for the men to work with safety. There were eight hewers at work on that morning.

Edward Robinson, the overman, was down the pit when it fired and he managed to get a light at the shaft and tried to get to the place where he knew the men to be. He had to turn back because of the afterdamp. He did not think that the explosion took place where the men fired the shot and he did not think that the gas fired at a lamp. William Mason the lampkeeper, said all the lamps were in good order.

Mr. Cole, the resident viewer of the colliery said that from his records the ventilation was good but Mr. Dunn thought that this was not the case, particularly when the furnace was not working at its full capacity. The colliery was examined by Mr. Thomas E. Forster but the figures that he gave to the court regarding the ventilation Mr Dunn regarded as “erroneous”. Mr. William Armstrong agreed with Mr. Forster as did Mr. Johnson the viewer of the Haswell Colliery.

Henry Holt, the furnaceman and T.W. Jobling, the viewer gave evidence and said it was difficult to discover how the explosion occurred. The jury then retired and brought in the verdict, “That the explosion was purely accidental.”

REFERENCES
The Mines Inspectors Report, 1862. Mr. Mathis Dunn.
The Colliery Guardian, 29th November 1862. p.437.
The Mining Journal. 1862.

Information supplied by Ian Winstanley and the Coal Mining History Resource Centre.